Head of Estimating
Location: Homebased – Remote, with UK travel
Contract: Full-time, Permanent
Hours: 40 per week, Monday to Friday
Salary: Competitive, plus £6,900 car allowance
About the role
As Head of Estimating, you will take ownership of developing robust, compliant and commercially competitive bids across a wide range of workstreams, including Repairs & Maintenance (such as M&E and Planned Works), Central Government housing and support services, Decarbonisation and Net Zero programmes, and DLO support. You will shape the commercial strategy behind each opportunity, building cost models from first principles, driving value engineering, and ensuring risks and assumptions are clearly understood. Working closely with Business Development, Operations and Legal teams, you will influence strategic bid decisions and ensure our proposals support sustainable growth and margin protection. Your leadership will set the standard for commercial governance, pricing excellence and the continuous improvement of our estimating function.
Key responsibilities
Commercial leadership
- Lead the creation of high‑quality commercial proposals tailored to individual opportunities
- Develop cost models from first principles and drive pricing strategy and value engineering
- Provide senior leadership with clear commercial analysis, risk positions and recommendations
- Partner with internal teams to shape strategic bid decisions and contract risk assessments
Tender governance & risk management
- Ensure all submissions are compliant, well‑documented and commercially sound
- Lead competitive dialogue, clarifications, RFIs and post‑tender negotiations
- Oversee commercial review of contracts and legal documentation
- Enhance estimating methodologies, tools, templates and documentation standards
Stakeholder engagement
- Present commercial proposals to Directors and the Senior Management Team
- Embed tender assumptions and methodologies into mobilisation and operational teams
- Engage with supply chain partners to secure competitive and deliverable pricing
Mobilisation & continuous improvement
- Play a key role in mobilisation of successful tenders, challenging assumptions to drive profitability
- Translate estimating assumptions into operational cost monitoring
- Analyse outturn performance to inform future bids and build a commercial knowledge base
People leadership
- Lead, mentor and develop the Estimating Team, fostering technical excellence and collaboration.
- Identify capability gaps and champion learning, systems improvement and performance management
Essential experience
- Extensive experience in social housing estimating, including expert knowledge of NHF Schedule of Rates.
- Proven ability to develop pricing strategies and deliver value engineering solutions.
- Strong track record in post‑tender negotiations and contract award processes.
- End‑to‑end tender lifecycle experience, from pricing to mobilisation.
- Strong working knowledge of standard forms of contract
- Experience presenting commercial proposals at senior leadership level.
- Ability to manage multiple bids under demanding deadlines.
- Demonstrable leadership experience in building high‑performing teams.
Desirable
- Experience at Head of / Senior Manager level within a large contracting or housing services organisation
- Familiarity with sector‑standard estimating systems and analytical tools
- Professional qualification in Quantity Surveying or Construction Management
Key skills & attributes
- Strategic commercial thinker with strong influencing capability
- Excellent communicator, able to simplify complex commercial reasoning
- High numerical accuracy and attention to detail
- Proactive problem solver committed to continuous improvement
- Collaborative leader with a passion for developing people
Benefits
- Family friendly policies, including enhanced maternity/paternity leave and much more
- 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
- 3 x Life assurance
- Family private medical
- £6,900 car allowance
- Generous Pension Scheme and sick pay
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Mears Rewards – discount voucher scheme for a host of household name retailers, including supermarkets, offering savings on purchases
- Excellent training and development opportunities
- Mears Fun Day - Our annual Fun Day is organised as a massive thank you from the Executive team for all the hard work! Previous years include, Alton Towers, Drayton Manor etc
- Volunteering Leave - Mears supports employees to undertake volunteering in the community for two days per year, in support of our social value commitment
All our roles require candidates to have the entitlement to work within the UK, Mears does not currently offer visa sponsorship.
To drive a Mears vehicle, you must be aged 21 have held your licence over 3 months and have less than 9 points.
Candidates should be aware that all our roles are subject to relevant Background, Identity & Security checks before commencement of employment.
Apply below or to discuss your application further; contact:
Laura Crosby (laura.crosby@mearsgroup.co.uk)
At Mears Group, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive, we are a Disability Confident employer, valuing individuality and ensuring equal opportunities for all.
We proudly support the Armed Forces Covenant and are honoured to have achieved the Gold Award in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) to coincide with this, we hold an Endorser Award for the Career Transition Partnership, recognising our commitment to veterans transitioning into civilian careers.
In our continued effort to promote social mobility, we invite applicants to voluntarily share their background information during the application stages to help us better understand the diverse experiences of our candidates. This is to ensure we are committed to improving social mobility. We use the Social Mobility Index to assess and enhance opportunities for individuals from diverse backgrounds. These questions are optional and will not impact your ability to apply.
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